Articulated car



June 19, 1923.

H. M. PFLAGER ARTICULATED CAR Filed Dec. 28. 1922 Patented June 19,1923.

HARRY III. PILAGEE, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, COMPANY, OF ST. LOUIS,MISSOURI, A

A SSIGNOR TO COMMONWEALTH STEEL CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

Application filed December 28, 1922. Serial No. 6 309,521.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HARRY M. PFLAGER, a citizen of the United States,residing at the city of St. Louis and State of Missouri, have 5 inventeda certain new and useful Improvement in Articulated Cars,

lowing is a full, clear, and exact description, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part ofthis application. 5

"This invention relates to railroad rolling stock, and consists inimprovements in articulated car construction. The object of my inventionis to mount the adjacent ends of two cars upon a single truck-so'thattwo cars may have such independent movement as is necessary or desirableto absorb the draft and buffing stresses incident to railroad operation.

Since my invent-ion necessarily contemplates the relativcmovement'of thecars and the common truck upon which they are mounted, an additionalobject of my invention is to provide for the operation of brake riggingfor the truck wheels from the car in the usual manner.

Detail objects of my invention will also appear from the specificationand an inspection of the drawings accompanying the same, in which,

Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal section through the platform andadjacent underframe members of two cars mounted upon a single truck.

Figure 2 is a similar section in which the brake rigging is shown.

Figure 3 is another arrangement of the brake rigging adapted for thesame truck and car body assembly.

The portions of the car body illustrated in my drawings consists of onepiece steel castings '1 of a familiar type having platform and buflerportions 2 and draft arm portions 31 which mount individual draft gears3 provided with draft yokes 4:. Each casting has a downwardlyfacingsurface 5 adjacent to its forward end and mounts a carry iron 6vertically alined with v the surface 4: but spaced below the same draw.bar 7. Draw far enough to receive a having their rear bars 7 are ofnovel form of which the fol- 1 bar.

ends tenoned in the forward ends of yokes 4 and having their forwardends provided with contours similar to the ordinary car body centerplate contours. Each draw bar 1s of substantial depth and of a size andshape to form a rigid member adapted to support a car body throughsurface 5 an the underframe casting 1. The draw bars 7 d ffer from eachother in the contours of thelr forward ends, that of the left hand drawbar having its end shaped to fit into the center plate 8 of the truck 9and to recelve the lower portion of the correspondingly shaped end ofthe right hand draw The forward ends of draw bars 7 therefore serve ascenter plate elements for thou respective cars and also as couplers forthe cars. They are retained in position on the truck center plate 8 bya-kiug-bolt 10.

Each of the underframe castings 1 is provided with elongated horizontalslots 11 alined with a corresponding slot of shorter length in the drawbar, and a yoke key 12 passes through the three slots and serves tolimit the travel of the draw bar relatively to the car. Assembly of drawbar 7 and yokes 4 1s maintained by suitable pins 13.

Obviously, the two car bodies are just as free to move to and from eachother a limited distance as they would be if mounted upon individualtrucks in the usual manner. At the same time all of the advantages ofthe articulated construction are maintained by the substitution of asingle truck under the draw bars for duplicate trucks under the car bodybolsters. The above assembly of the car bodies and the truck creates aproblem in the application of the brakes, which occasions theconstructions such as shown in Figures 2 and 3 in which the brakeriggingisshown as containing the usual cylinder lever 14, live leverconnecting rod 15,11ve lever 16, dead lever 17 and of carry iron 6 ofthe right hand car. It

will be understood that the portions of the brake rigging of the lefthand car which operated the truck replaced by truck 9 will shown isused.

With this anchoring of the dead lever, movement of thetruck and thebrake riggin mounted on the truck longitudinal y of t e right hand carwill not produce any operative movement of the brake rigging, as trucklevers 16, 17 and 20 will swing about their upper ends like the elementsof a parallel ruler, and their lower ends, remainin the same distanceapart, will not be idle when the articulated construction set the rakes.

If for any reason, it is necessary or desirable to anchor the truck deadlever to the truck frame instead of to the car body, as shown in Figure2, the construction illustrated in Figure 3 may be used, in which thetruck dead lever 21 is anchored to the truck frame at 22 and thecompensating elements consisting of a cylinder connecting rod floatinglever 23 having one end secured to the truck live lever 24 and havingits opposite end connected by a rod 26 to a compensating lever 27fulcrumed on the car body at 28 and having its opposite end secured tothe truck bolster by a connection 29. The cylinder lever rod 30 isconnected to lever'23 intermediate the ends of the latter. In thisconstruction, theadditional elements 23, 26,27 and 29 secure the [aresult as the anchorage shown in I iguure 2. For instance, movement ofthe truck to the left will shift points a and h accordin ly and turnlevers 23 and 27 about their in crums without afiecting the position ofconnecting rod 30.

Various other arrangements of the brake rigging adapted to compensatefor the relative movement of the truck and body will sug est themselvesto those familiar with bra e installations, and modifications of theextending beyond said car body with its outer end, supported on saidtruck, said draw bar supporting the end of said car body.

. 5. In combination with a car truck provided with an upwardly facingcenter plate, a car body, a slidable draw bar mounted on said car bodyand extending beyond the same and provided with a downwardly facingcenter plate adapted to tit and rest upon said truck center plate.

6. In a railway car, an underframe memher having a transverse slot and adownwardly facing surface in front of said slot, a draw bar having aslot alined with said member slot, and a bearing surface engaging saidmember surface, a key through said slots, and a center plate on theouter end of said draw bar.

7. In an articulated car, car bodies, connecting draw bars slidablymounted on their respective bodies, interengaging center plates on saiddraw bars, and underframe members supported by said draw bars.

8. In an articulated car, a truck, two car bodies the ends of whichrespectively project over said truck, draw bars slidably mounted on saidbodies having their outer ends supported on said truck and supportingone end each of said bodies over said truck.

9. In a railway car, a body,a member on said body adapted to support thebody from a truck and having movement longitudinally of said body.

10. Ina railway car, a body, a slidable draw bar and a truck supportingsaid body through said draw bar.

11. In a railway car, a slidable draw-bar provided with integrallyformed coupling and center plate members.

In testimony whereof I hereunto atlin my signature this 5th day of Dec,1922.

' II. M. PFIAAGER.

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